Pacific Buddhist Academy broke ground this week on construction of a $6.5 million classroom building in Nuuanu that will allow the school to boost enrollment by 50 students.

In an email interview, the academy’s headmaster, Josh Hernandez Morse, quipped, “If it’s not completed in 12 months, I will shave my head!”

The new building will allow enrollment at the private, coeducational high school, founded in 2003, to jump to 120 students from 69. It will be situated in an area fronting Lusitana Street, which is the backside of the academy’s property. The academy, 1710 Pali Highway, shares its campus with the Honpa Hongwanji Hawaii Betsuin temple, headquarters of the Jodo Shinshu (Shin) Buddhist sect in Hawaii.

“I’m really excited about the structure itself,” which is designed for flexibility in its learning spaces, Hernandez Morse said. “Three of the four major learning zones feature movable walls that make possible interdisciplinary work and variable student groupings.” The first-floor humanities hall, for example, has a movable wall that opens up to a courtyard.

In addition to eight classrooms and a teacher workroom, the building will feature a student common area/amphitheater, tea ceremony room, science laboratory, visual arts studio and a media studio for performing arts and digital media endeavors.

Regarding the tea room, “we’re still settling in on a formal name for the space, but we believe it will be one of the nicest tea ceremony rooms on the island — in the ‘omotesenke’ tradition — and an important piece of how the school integrates peace practice into its curriculum,” Hernandez Morse said.

The science lab is expected to be equipped for projects ranging from robotics to biochemistry, he said.

The PBA community and supporting temples raised $9 million to cover construction as well as nonconstruction costs, such as design and site preparation, Hernandez Morse said. But more than $1 million is still needed to pay for furnishings, equipment and related expenses, he said.

“We couldn’t have achieved the ($9 million) goal without the strong support of the temple community — some $5 million of the total came from temple communities throughout Hawaii and Japan,” Hernandez Morse said.

With the additional students, he said, the school will be able to expand its programs while retaining a “wonderful small school environment,” which provides students space for solitude and ample opportunities to practice different roles in their relationships with teachers, friends, leaders and visitors.

A visitor to the campus, Hernandez Morse said, “should be able to feel a sense of community and peace.” The school aims to embody the “dharma (teachings) and also a sense of time and the history of Shin Buddhism in Hawaii.”